Working on a typical NASCAR pit crew is a lot like being an offensive lineman.

If you are doing your job, you rarely get much attention. But mess up and the whole world gets to watch it over and over and over on TV.

Jimmy Watts discovered that the hard way this past weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The full-time firefighter from Charlotte felt a heat he probably hasn't felt before.

And now he's likely praying that his 15 minutes of fame ends soon.

Watts is the gas man for the No. 47 Sprint Cup team of Marcos Ambrose. During a green-flag pit stop on Sunday one of the tires got loose and rolled across pit road and through the infield grass toward the race track.

Watts dashed out to retrieve it. Bad move.

NASCAR officials -- seeing a crew member running through the grass chasing a tire and heading for the race track -- threw a caution out of safety concerns. Watts wasn't all that close to the actual track, but there is always the possibility that a car could wreck and come spinning through the grass.

NASCAR suspended Watts for the rest of the race.

Then came the chewing out of team members in the NASCAR Hauler of Doom.

Then on Tuesday came word that Watts would be suspended for four races.

NASCAR took a dim view of the incident not just because of safety reasons but also because it required a caution in the middle of green-flag pit stops. That had the effect of catching some drivers a lap down, which can affect the outcome of a race.

Granted, what Watts did was wrong. But his suspension seems disproportionate for two reasons.

There have been plenty of drivers who -- after being wrecked and getting angry at the guy who wrecked them -- have walked out onto the track and thrown various objects at the car of the offending party.

Even though it's done under caution, it's still dangerous. But while that will get you a trip to the hauler and some sort of penalty, it won't get you suspended.

Second, suspending crew members is becoming common but you rarely see a driver suspended, even for the most egregious behavior. Kurt Busch wasn't suspended when he almost ran over a crew member on Tony Stewart's team on pit road.
Robby Gordon was fined and docked points in 2006 for intentionally bringing out a caution by throwing padding on the track. But he wasn't suspended.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ruled to have spun out intentionally to bring out a caution back in 2004. Again, no suspension.

Denny Hamlin's punishment for stopping on the track to bring out a caution at Richmond last year was a two-lap penalty.

The difference, of course, is that drivers are the stars of the show. When they act up they lose points and write checks, but they race every week because they're the show.

Watts is just a nobody crew guy on a lower-tier team, so he gets hammered.